LISD trustees scan preliminary plans for campus renovations
By LISA CARNLEY Staff Writer

Library renovations to cafeteria expansions were some of the topics of discussion at Monday night's meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Lampasas Independent School District.

Board members were updated on various facets of construction plans for the new high school campus, and saw preliminary drawings for upgrades at Kline Whitis Elementary and Lampasas High School, which will become the middle school campus when the new 1,600-student high school is built on 88 acres of donated land south of town on U.S. Highway 281, just behind Grace Fellowship.

A $48.85 million bond issue is providing funds for several new district campuses, including an elementary school in the east end of the county to house 650 students on 30 acres of land purchased by the LISD along Big Divide Road.

At Kline Whitis, which houses prekindergarten through secondgraders, a portion of the school's population will head east to the new elementary campus when it opens. That will allow the district to remove many of the portable buildings that have been a fixture at the school for a number of years.

Plans call for expansion of the cafeteria and relocation of the serving line to make more room in the kitchen.

The school's library, which is too small for its student population, will be moved into the current gymnasium, and a proposed 3,000-square-foot metal building will be added for physical education purposes. It will be adjacent to the asphalt playground area.

The new library will have more than 4,400 square feet of space, while the old school library will be converted to a music room. Classrooms previously housed in portables will be moved into the main building.

"All portables will disappear," said Superintendent Dr. Brant Myers. "And we would like to do this relatively soon."

The new middle school campus will house seventh- and eighth-graders, as well as sixthgraders moved up from Hanna Springs Intermediate School.

For a number of years the LMS buildings held students in grades six through eight, until the intermediate school was constructed.

Preliminary plans for the old high school campus call for moving the kitchen to the back of the cafeteria and into space now occupied by the vocational wing. The old kitchen will be renovated for classrooms.

Myers said fencing will be added to the Broad Street campus to make it a more secure facility, including security gates with push bars that allow students to exit but offer no entry point.

"That will allow for movement inside the complex but not outside," said the superintendent.

"Our main focus is in the cafeteria and kitchen area," he said. Moving portable buildings off that campus also is called for, Myers added. "We should be able to remove about 10 portables at the school."

The superintendent also noted that the design process for the new east-end elementary school began this week.

If everything goes as planned, the elementary school should be ready for students at the opening of the 2009-10 school term.

In a related item, trustees discussed naming of the new east-end school and the criteria by which a name must be selected.

James Briggs, president of the board of trustees, also noted that selection of a school name is entirely up to trustees.

Briggs asked trustee Kirk Whitehead to head a committee to gather potential names and to forward a recommendation to the board at its February meeting.

In election news, Benjie Tischler, LISD election clerk, said the county's election administrator will work with the school district and other entities to put all voting in one location, saving voters from having to visit separate sites to cast ballots in various elections.

"The chief complaint I get is that people have to visit three different places to vote. It is very inconvenient," said Mrs. Tischler.

If entities approve combining May elections, it could save funds on polling equipment and by employing fewer workers.

Mrs. Tischler said all early voting for May elections would be conducted at the election clerk's office on Live Oak Street and that paper balloting would not be used except for mail-in votes. "We've been through an election with the electronic voting, and I think people are more comfortable with the machines now."

State law requires school districts to hold elections in conjunction with either city or county elections.

In the May election, the seats of Briggs, Place 7, and Wesley Crow, Place 6, will be on the ballot. Crow serves as board secretary.

In other business Monday, trustees selected five names to be placed on the ballot for Lampasas County Appraisal District board members. They agreed to support current members who assented to another term -- Dale DeShazo, Lawrence Hart and Milton Kellner -- and added two new names in Evan Stubbs and Dr. Billy Cofield.

Other county entities will send in their nominations, and the board members' term will begin Jan. 1, 2008.

And since a small slice of the LISD falls in Burnet County, Lampasas trustees were given a minimal number of votes for appraisal district directors in that county. They accepted the recommendation for nominations from the Burnet ISD superintendent.

Also Monday night, Myers said the Lampasas ISD has lost 26 students since early September. "We may gain them back, it's hard to tell. But right now, I am more concerned with attendance," he said of the low numbers that have been plaguing the district of late. "We have to get these kids to school."